The Division – One Year On

[quinch1199]

Interested to know feelings on this. Where do we see the game after the first year is through? Once the first wave of season passes and DLC that we’re aware off have passed and been played. Do we envisage a year two for this title or will it succumb like other AAA console-centric titles and be dropped or surpassed by The Division Part Two or something….or worse perhaps nothing? Do we see season passes being sold for the second year and a steady stream of additions, improvements  and DLC for the game over another few years?

As a PC gamer who’s pretty much purchased their first official “AAA” cross-platform title (read: Console-centric) … I don’t know how this works or what to expect. I mean I won’t stop playing or buying a season pass but I wonder what the life-cycle is here?

I’ve noticed similar titles often lose the mass of players from console but sometimes continue ad-infinitum via PC with a modding community or similar (though I have no idea how Ubisoft view such things).

So, how do you see Q3 2017 shaping up?

*IN OTHER NEWS* Yet another exploit has been found meaning players can incrementally increase their bullet damage meaning most high level bosses are one-shot kills...(sigh)...just...great

 

[Oh. daesu]

(Pardon me for not actually responding to your main points)

They don't use public test servers? Hell of a lot better for exploits be found that way. Though content gets delayed. PTS would help longevity.

 

[Blazzen67]

They have stated that this game will be a mainstay. "They" meaning Massive/ubisoft. They might take the Destiny rout. 2 years before they release The Division 2. But Ubisoft has already done what i think bungie should have done 2 years ago. leave the older systems behind, the xbox 360 and the PS3. those two systems are holding Destiny back from being a better game in my opinion.

 This game has a ton of potential and they can add a ton of content to this game to last years if they wanted to. I see this game having the entire city of new york, and Brooklyn before its all said and done...they can even move this game to other city's as well. But this will all be a matter of the community, if its supported by the player base for the long run, it will continue well into the future. If the numbers fall way down, they will be forced to abandon this game.

 

[quinch1199]

From the planned expansions this year, there still seems to be vast areas of the map unaccounted for…even places people have gliched through to and walked about in! I don’t know if these will be normal expansions (non-DLC updates) though…I’m just really interested about the future.

 

[Blazzen67]

(Pardon me for not actually responding to your main points)

They don't use public test servers? Hell of a lot better for exploits be found that way. Though content gets delayed. PTS would help longevity.

they might have test servers, but they certainly aren't public..which i agree, is a mistake on their part

 

[MurphDog6]

*SPOILER ALERT*

I personally would love this game to keep going for a few years and I hope that UBI and massive are planning to do so, there is so much space for years worth of expansions and lots of New York to utilise but it doesn't stop there. with the end mission completed and going to view the Aaron Keener echoes the game could even expand out of New York as he now holds the potential to develop the green poison virus and release anywhere in the world. That would be great for the game and story line in my opinion for a final showdown with Keener being the end of the line. Unless of course as you said they are planning a division 2 or something like that. This game still needs ironing out with all the bugs and glitches but it has the potential for a very long and full filing game life

 

[Blazzen67]

From the planned expansions this year, there still seems to be vast areas of the map unaccounted for…even places people have gliched through to and walked about in! I don’t know if these will be normal expansions (non-DLC updates) though…I’m just really interested about the future.

 just by looking at the map, it looks like they will add central park at some point in time.

 

[quinch1199]

They have stated that this game will be a mainstay. "They" meaning Massive/ubisoft. They might take the Destiny rout. 2 years before they release The Division 2. But Ubisoft has already done what i think bungie should have done 2 years ago. leave the older systems behind, the xbox 360 and the PS3. those two systems are holding Destiny back from being a better game in my opinion.

 This game has a ton of potential and they can add a ton of content to this game to last years if they wanted to. I see this game having the entire city of new york, and Brooklyn before its all said and done...they can even move this game to other city's as well. But this will all be a matter of the community, if its supported by the player base for the long run, it will continue well into the future. If the numbers fall way down, they will be forced to abandon this game.

Well yes, I can imagine a huge patch next year sometime that literally opens up the Brooklyn Bridge...building the level of detail they already have into Brooklyn as well is going to take a long time but so worth it!

And of course the story "end" is deliberately open like a season final on Dawn of the Dead or something (just don't go the Zombie route please!!!)

 

[HHHope]

Endless potential to this game. It'll be here for a while. 

 

[quinch1199]

 just by looking at the map, it looks like they will add central park at some point in time.

Here's hoping for a Friends "Central Perk" coffee house easter egg.... (five corpses sat around a table on a sofa)

 

[TheDarkZone]

I'm a bit worried about the future of this game. 

They made it too easy to progress and get basically everything. The crafting system is too simple. The best loot is too easy to come by. Because of that, it is going to be hard to keep the interest of players for a year, 2 years, etc. 

Using a similar game as a comparison, look at Elder Scrolls Online. First of all, just to get through the campaign with no glitching, power-leveling, etc, is an experience that is at least 5-6 times longer than this one. The endgame progression is also much slower. If you want to be a master crafter in woodsmanship or any of the other crafting lines, you are looking at a few months minimum for your character to research all the available attributes. Want to max out your horse riding abilities? Great. That is going to take 3-4 months (actually probably longer, but I don't remember the max's off the top of my head).

That kind of stuff gives the potential for a greater longevity in my opinion.  The way this game is, they are going to constantly (as in almost monthly) be pushing out new stuff to keep players interested. As an example, it took all of 4-5 days for a lot of players to collect all the new gear sets.

I'm still not sure if they did this on purpose or they just completely underestimated how fast players would get through the game and get the best gear.

 

[KidGreengene]

Overall, I think Ubi did an outstanding job on release, and a pretty poor job on their first "major" update. But that is to be expected and I don't mind so much. Ubi is learning right along with us. What matters is they made a world that can survive and even thrive if they handle it with care. So far I trust them. I think the Incursion glitch really bothers them but I do wish they would just remove mobile cover until it is resolved.

What I would like to see for year two, is another part open up. A new area with new quadrants and a new DZ. So you have you 1-30 PVP/E areas and then you have you 31-45 area and then later down the road, another map that is 46-60 with its own DZ... something like that. Way back when, showing this thing off, they showed a map that had three quadrants like that with three separate DZ's.

 

[quinch1199]

I'm a bit worried about the future of this game. 

They made it too easy to progress and get basically everything. The crafting system is too simple. The best loot is too easy to come by. Because of that, it is going to be hard to keep the interest of players for a year, 2 years, etc. 

Using a similar game as a comparison, look at Elder Scrolls Online. First of all, just to get through the campaign with no glitching, power-leveling, etc, is an experience that is at least 5-6 times longer than this one. The endgame progression is also much slower. If you want to be a master crafter in woodsmanship or any of the other crafting lines, you are looking at a few months minimum for your character to research all the available attributes. Want to max out your horse riding abilities? Great. That is going to take 3-4 months (actually probably longer, but I don't remember the max's off the top of my head).

That kind of stuff gives the potential for a greater longevity in my opinion.  The way this game is, they are going to constantly (as in almost monthly) be pushing out new stuff to keep players interested. As an example, it took all of 4-5 days for a lot of players to collect all the new gear sets.

I'm still not sure if they did this on purpose or they just completely underestimated how fast players would get through the game and get the best gear.

This is what I mean. The game mechanics seem to have been set up for an almost instant rush of gratification …and I’ve seen plenty of games do this on console and PC deliberately. It’s a get rich quick business plan … give out all the good stuff, knowing full well that a huge chuck of players (a particular demographic) will dive into a game, play continuously, hit the game hard with a deliberate attempt to break it, beat it, move on…

…some developers rely on appealing to this demographic and it’s a worrying trend.

On that though I don’t believe Massive would have put as much detail into the world building if this was their aim. I mean why bother having NPC’s (civilians and even animals!)  interact with each other and the environment in such levels of detail if you wanted to appeal to someone who was JUST going to run past to the next mission and ignore such subtle details?

This gives me hope that this has all been a huge miscalculation. That on launching this game they seriously underestimated the inclusion of the “must rush to highest point” demographic AND the general skills of even the average player!

This leaves a very awkward position. If they radically modify crafting and drops the alienate a big part of the gamers BUT if they don’t…they’re likely to annoy them anyway as they will use up content faster than its produced!! One side you have gamers at top end shouting that drops aren’t good/plentiful enough, and another equally vocal group (OF OFTEN THE SAME PLAYERS!) shouting that they’ve run out of content.

IF you take this game as an RPG, at RPG pace…they I think you’re playing it “as intended” but so few do.

 

[quinch1199]

Overall, I think Ubi did an outstanding job on release, and a pretty poor job on their first "major" update. But that is to be expected and I don't mind so much. Ubi is learning right along with us. What matters is they made a world that can survive and even thrive if they handle it with care. So far I trust them. I think the Incursion glitch really bothers them but I do wish they would just remove mobile cover until it is resolved.

What I would like to see for year two, is another part open up. A new area with new quadrants and a new DZ. So you have you 1-30 PVP/E areas and then you have you 31-45 area and then later down the road, another map that is 46-60 with its own DZ... something like that. Way back when, showing this thing off, they showed a map that had three quadrants like that with three separate DZ's.

WHAT IF ... any new areas opened up are all Dark Zone. Only Manhattan is a relative safe area and where all new players start and get a relatively "safer" experience of PvP? Imagine if you will World of Warcraft with only one safe city. Step outside and its free game.

You can build a rich story on this where players need to take an airlift ... Washington has fallen .... with only a very small beach head area to deploy and gain ammunition or crafting...then all around you is DZ

 

[KidGreengene]

That would be pretty neat too. They could go a couple ways. But that does limit the PvE'ers a bit once they hit endgame.

My thought is that This area be the starter one. So the people set on being the highest and having the best gear have now moved zones. So the PvP in the DZ is now a bit more fair as the 240 guys are in Zone 2 doing those missions, Incursions and DZ.

 

[Xeromaus]

Lotta pros and cons to the game right now, but I think it'll come down to the first paid DLC to really tell us whats going on.

 

[quinch1199]

*Disclaimer* I am NOTORIOUSLY proficient at predicting plots/stories/whos who etc for TV shows, Films, Video games ... I hold no responsibility if I inadvertently blow the next 24 months of story and content on this thread. Seriously, I can tell you every detail of a plot from a film trailer or halfway through a video game I can tell you exactly how it ends. ..

..be warned! LOL

 

[quinch1199]

Lotta pros and cons to the game right now, but I think it'll come down to the first paid DLC to really tell us whats going on.

Point...well made.

 

[ADK-Joker]

Real question is: Does Faye Lau ever recover?...

 

[Xeromaus]

Real question is: Does Faye Lau ever recover?...

I PRAY she does, and that the rest of the npcs in the b.o.o. evolve as well... If I have to listen to another year of "apples on a stick", I'mma shoot that kid.